Cochrane, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Cochrane, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Cochrane lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Cochrane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cochrane — the short answer
Cochrane, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 495 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 495 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Cochrane's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cochrane's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cochrane
Each reading below is measured for Cochrane itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCochrane runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCochrane sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Cochrane is in
Cochrane sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cochrane's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buffalo County.
What Grows in Cochrane
Every plant below cleared Cochrane's own zone 5a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cochrane?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Cochrane
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cochrane. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VILLAGE OF COCHRANE STREET PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ROHRER CHEVROLET BUICK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CLEM REPAIR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BF-20/12W/08-0025Nitrate · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #17792Brownfields · 2100 ft
- LA CROSSE MILLING COBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BUZZYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DASCHER CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FOEGENS AUTO FIX-IT SHOPBrownfields · 2500 ft
- John SendelbachUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BUFFALO LUMBER & TIE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ADAM JR REUTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cochrane's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Cochrane.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Cochrane
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cochrane
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cochrane
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cochrane, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Cochrane. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cochrane
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cochrane average
Your land is one point inside Cochrane
Everything above resolves to Cochrane as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 495 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Cochrane Average
Cochrane Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cochrane
- ●One soil character for all of Cochrane
- ●Frost dates read at Cochrane's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cochrane's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cochrane
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cochrane, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cochrane averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cochrane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cochrane average
How we know this about Cochrane
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cochrane’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Cochrane
When does frost risk typically end in Cochrane?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cochrane typically lands around Apr 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Cochrane?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cochrane typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cochrane?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cochrane sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 12, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cochrane?
The federal record around Cochrane is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cochrane?
From about Sep 26 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cochrane's scale — its 5a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cochrane's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Cochrane’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cochrane's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 495 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cochrane's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cochrane's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 26 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cochrane, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cochrane's boundary and the 495 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cochrane's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cochrane's 495 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buffalo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buffalo County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Buffalo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cochrane's 495 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cochrane you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 495 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Cochrane-wide figureread your own land →
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